GOP Sens. Rubio, Scott split on wall emergency

For Rubio, it’s a violation of Constitution. For Scott, a well-measured security solution.

Florida’s Republican U.S. senators disagree about President Donald Trump’s move to declare a “national emergency” to build part of a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico.

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio said he fears the precedent such a presidential action would set. And, he said, it appears to violate the Constitution, which clearly gives Congress the authority to appropriate money.

“We have a crisis at our southern border, but no crisis justifies violating the Constitution,” Rubio said. “Today’s national emergency is border security. But a future president may use this exact same tactic to impose the Green New Deal.”

Rubio, in a statement issued before Trump’s planned declaration, said it’s possible he might end up supporting the move, but said it’s unlikely. “I will wait to see what statutory or constitutional power the president relies on to justify such a declaration before making any definitive statement. But I am skeptical it will be something I can support.”

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott is all in with Trump.

He sent out an email before the president’s announcement urging Trump to “Do Whatever it Takes to Secure Our Border.”

After Trump’s announcement, Scott’s office issued a news release praising the action. “I applaud the president’s decision to put the safety of our country first and use his authority to secure our border. This is a reasoned, measured approach to fulfill his duty as commander in chief and keep our country safe,” Scott said.

Rubio, who was an unsuccessful candidate for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, has sometimes been supportive and other times been critical of the president.

Scott, who finished eight years as Florida governor last month, has consistently been an enthusiastic supporter of everything the president does.

Democrats critical

South Florida Democrats condemned Trump’s action.

In a series of tweets Friday, U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, D-West Boca wrote that Trump “would rather steal money from our military, which actually fights national security threats, for his made-up national emergency . ... Even more evidence that this is nothing more than a political ploy.”

He said the president’s declaration of emergency “is a farce & his wall is about vanity not security.”

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, called it “unconstitutional [and] outrageous.”

“He is jeopardizing our [military] readiness, he will jeopardize the safety and security of our troops,” Wasserman Schultz said Friday on CNN.

Wasserman Schultz said Congress would use “every tool at our disposal” to prevent to prevent Trump from spending money that wasn’t appropriated for that purpose.

She said Trump “lies” when he claims that generals have discretion about where military construction money is spent.

She said she would summon military leaders before the Appropriations Subcommittee on military construction, which she chairs, to find out if they believe a border wall “is more important than the protection of our facilities that we already have funded.”

U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, DWest Palm Beach, tweeted that Trump was “overstepping the checks & balances of our Constitution & setting a dangerous new precedent.”

Rubio

Scott